Our Civil Liberties
It should give us all hope - left, right, and center - that common sense and an awareness of what the Founding Fathers intended seems to be taking hold. Not only does the passage of Patriot II, in any form, seem more and more unlikely, but now there seems to be a strong and growing reaction from conservatives against John Ashcroft and his misuse of both Patriot I and the Justice Department to go along with the persistent criticism from the left. Instapundit sums up this trend nicely.This is heartening because it seems as if the self-correcting mechanisms built into our system may in fact be working to swing the pendulum back.

In reaction, Ashcroft just announced a multi-city tour to talk about the fight against terrorism and the benefits of Patriot I. A multi-city tour? What, is he promoting a new album? Will there be t-shirts? Is there a DOJ staff wrangler dedicated to removing all the red M and M's? I'm trying not to think about what Ashcroft groupies look like...